SC/STs set to get 8 seats each reserved in Assembly
After 4 terms, SC seats to be rotated in J&K
Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Mar 11: The Central Government will be associating Members of Parliament (MPs) from the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir in the Delimitation Commission but without voting rights amidst reports that the Commission would start its work by the end of this month or early next month for delimitation of 90 Assembly constituencies in the UT.
Official sources indicated to the Excelsior that Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) could get eight seats each reserved in the Legislative Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir, leaving 74 seats open but the final call and seats to be reserved for SCs and STs had to be taken by the Delimitation Commission, which was recently set up by the Union Ministry of Law and Justice and is headed by Justice (Retired) Ranjana Prakash Desai with Sushil Chandra, Election Commissioner and Shailendra Kumar, Chief Electoral officer (CEO), J&K as Members.
“The Members of Parliament in Jammu and Kashmir will be associated with the Delimitation Commission to assist the Commission in various ways especially in their Parliamentary constituencies,” sources said, adding the Commission will have three permanent members only while the MPs will only be the associate members.
However, the MPs will not have voting rights in the Commission, sources clarified.
“It there is no unanimous report and it comes to the voting, only three Members will have that right,” they said.
The Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir now has five Members of Parliament-two from Jammu region (both belonging to the Bharatiya Janata Party) and three from Kashmir (all affiliated with National Conference). Apart from them, it has four Rajya Sabha members-two from PDP and one each of BJP and Congress.
Sources said the Members of Parliament can suggest the change in boundaries of the Assembly segments falling within their Parliamentary constituencies and rotation of reserved seats.
“The Delimitation Commission can take their suggestions into account but the final decision will be vested with the permanent Commission members,” they added.
The Commission, according to sources, will also be mandated to reserve eight seats each for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the new Assembly of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
While the Scheduled Castes had seven reserved seats in the Assembly of erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir State including Chhamb, Domana, RS Pura, Samba, Hiranagar, Ramban and Chenani, all falling in Jammu region, the numbers in the new Assembly was likely to go up to eight, sources said, adding that the seats reserved for SCs are likely to be rotated by the Delimitation Commission.
Four Assembly elections were held on seven seats reserved for Scheduled Castes while as the seats had to be rotated after two terms of the Assembly but that didn’t happen in Jammu and Kashmir as no such exercise was undertaken by the previous State Governments.
As far as reservation for Scheduled Tribes in the new Assembly is concerned, sources said, they will be altogether new seats and will be identified by the Delimitation Commission based on population of the STs.
This will be for the first time in the history of Jammu and Kashmir that the Scheduled Tribes will get reservation in the Legislative Assembly despite having significant population in the Union Territory.
The Commission could visit Jammu and Kashmir either by the end of this month or start of April, sources said.
While splitting Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories through the Reorganization Act, which was approved by the Parliament on August 6 last year, the Union Home Ministry had increased Assembly seats of Jammu and Kashmir by seven taking total seats to 114-24 of which are reserved for Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) while election will be held for 90 seats.
Erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir had 111 seats including 24 reserved for PoK while elections were held for 87 seats. With creation of Ladakh as Union Territory, four seats of the region were reduced and the Assembly was left with 83 seats. However, with increase of seven seats, J&K UT will have an Assembly of 90 seats. Two Women MLAs will be nominated to the House, which was the position earlier also.
In the previous Assembly, Kashmir had 46 seats, Jammu 37 and Ladakh four.
Delimitation of the Assembly constituencies was last held in 1994-95 during the President’s Rule when seats of the erstwhile State Assembly were raised from 76 to 87. Jammu region’s seats were increased from 32 to 37, Kashmir’s from 42 to 46 and Ladakh’s two to four. However, the delimitation was freezed in 2002 by the then National Conference Government headed by Dr Farooq Abdullah in lines with the decision taken by then Central Government headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Elections to the Legislative Assembly will be held only after delimitation of Assembly constituencies is completed.
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